Farhad Manjoo

When San Francisco’s planners recently considered a proposal to build tiny apartments in the city, opponents of the plan began calling the spaces “Twitter apartments.” The name was a reference to their micro size -- these apartments will be as small as 220 square feet, about the size of a parking space -- but it was also a knock on their presumed techie tenants. The micro apartments will rent for $1,300 to $1,500 a month -- crazy in most places, but a steal in San Francisco, where regular person-sized studio apartments now go for an average of more than $2,000 a month. The high price means that they’ll mainly be snapped up by young tech workers.

Eric Schmidt sure has become fun since he stopped running Google. I’m not sure what the guy does, exactly, but he looks like he’s really having a good time doing it. (Look, there he is dancing Gangnam Style!) Schmidt has always been an interesting interview—he’s more thoughtful than ruthless, which was one of his shortcomings as Google’s CEO—but as chairman, he’s been able to really put his rational, expansive side on display. Schmidt’s role gives him enough inside access to understand what’s really going on at Google, yet—unlike a boss—he’s far enough removed from day-to-day operations to be able to see things from beyond just Google’s point of view. Schmidt is also not one for bluster; he won’t try to convince you that you Google’s ahead in some area of the tech business when, clearly, it isn’t. (See Google+).

In a single succinct, sincere, and brilliant note, Tim Cook has put Apple’s Maps fiasco to bed. It was a beautiful thing. He offered a clear assessment of the problem (“we fell short”), and took full responsibility for it. He put forward a heartfelt apology (“we are extremely sorry”), and gave customers an easy, pretty-good short-term solution to the problem—they could get one of many rival maps apps from the App Store. Finally, not only did he explain how Apple will handle the situation—Maps would improve as more people use it—but he staked Apple’s brand on the promise that it would get better: “We know that you expect [the best] from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.”

Anyone who cares about fostering a dynamic, competitive tech industry should be rooting for Nokia. Even if you’re not as gaga for Windows Phone as I am—I think it’s the best-designed mobile OS on the market—you’ve got to concede that the Finnish phonemaker has the capacity to be a genuine force for innovation in phone and tablet hardware.

In the fall of 2008, just a year after it released the iPhone, Apple became the most profitable phone maker in the world. The milestone wasn’t much remarked upon by the press. At the time, Apple was still selling only a tiny number of phones compared to its rivals, and it wasn’t clear that it could ever become a global juggernaut in the phone business.

Sometimes when life gets too stressful, I try to remind myself that things could be rougher. Sure, I’ve got a raucous toddler and three deadlines in two days, but at least I’m not a coal miner. At least I don’t toil in a factory that renders pink slime. And best of all, at least I’m not running a large American personal computer company that has no conceivable way of combating an existential threat to its business.

Let’s stipulate that only an idiot would panic over Apple’s third-quarter earnings “miss.” The company surpassed its own expectations for the quarter, and though it didn’t hit analysts’ predictions, the reasons it fell short are easy to understand.